Item SH 850304: Ink Bottle - Stephens' Inks, Blue Ink, Pottery, Corked from the Psychiatric Services Collection, Museums Victoria
Stephens' Inks Sydney liquidation notice 1951, Trove
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Stephens' Scarlet Writing Fluid, ceramic bottle.
The Australian factory opened in Sydney in 1930, bottles were owned and returned to the factory for re-filling as bottle manufacturing was costly.
After changes to the Australian import duties on inks when a local manufacturing works was established in the early 1930s by Stephens Inks (Australia) Ltd., in 1935, the company had a new two storey factory designed by architects B.B. Wilshire & N. Hodges built on the Pacific Highway, North Sydney. The ink was sold in locally-made glass bottles that remained the property of the company and were collected for reuse.
The company was liquidated in 1951.
Text on label: "40 FLUID OZ S/ALDERSGATE ST LONDON/ STEPHENS' / SCARLET/ WRITING FLUID/ No. 35 / PRINTED IN ENGLAND/ THIS LABEL IS TRADE MARK/ HM STEPHENS." There is faint writing behind No. 35, not all is legible "...Scarlet colour...makes a vivid contrast/ ........correcting etc. Being a / ,......much......fountain pens./ ......inks (AUST).....Ros street, Sydney, N.S.W."
Impressed on base: "R. FOWLER LTD / SYDNEY/ 37"
Stephens' Scarlet Writing Fluid, ceramic bottle. Is an example of revolutionary office equipment of the early 20th century.
Stephens' Ink' was invented by the British physician, Dr Henry Stephens (1796-1864), who in 1832 first developed his indelible "blue-black writing fluid" that became the basis of a successful manufacturing enterprise lasting over 130 years. Stephens' ink revolutionised office life in the latter half of the 19th century, because it was ready-to-use and saved clerical workers much time previously spent mixing powdered inks. The inks were indelible -non-fading.
Item SH 850304: Ink Bottle - Stephens' Inks, Blue Ink, Pottery, Corked from the Psychiatric Services Collection, Museums Victoria
Stephens' Inks Sydney liquidation notice 1951, Trove